CAT quashes promotion of senior IFS officer
Chandigarh, March 30
The Chandigarh Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has quashed the promotion of Haryana Officer-on-Special Duty (Forest Rules Cell) KL Manhas, IFS. The officer is in the rank of Principle Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), the highest rank in the state Forest Department.

New policy to assess house tax soon
Sirsa, March 30
The Haryana Government will soon introduce a new policy for the assessment of house tax in municipal areas of the state.
Under the new policy, the government plans to introduce self-assessment of the house tax on the lines of the income tax.

Two minors breached
Wheat crop on 25 acres in Jind village damaged
Assessment of loss in hailstorm orderedJind, March 30
Several houses in the Balmiki Colony of Nirjan village were flooded and wheat crop on about 25 acres near Alipura village damaged following breaches in two water minors in the past 24 hours.

Gorakhpur Power PlantKisan samiti: Safety claims misleading
Fatehabad, March 30
The “Parmanoo Sanyantra Virodhi Morcha”, Haryana, and the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, Gorakhpur, today contested the safety claims of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and alleged that the officers of the corporation were misleading people on the issue.

Fans gather at a shop in Sadar Bazar in Karnal to cheer the Indian cricket team during the semi-final World Cup match between India and Pakistan in Mohali
on Wednesday. Tribune photo: Ravi Kumar

Property dealer gets 5-yr RI for fraud, rape
Kurukshetra, March 30
The court of Dr Neelima Shangla, Additional Sessions Judge, Kurukshetra, in a judgment announced here yesterday, awarded five years of rigorous imprisonment to Narender Sharma, son of Vishnu Dutt of Shanti Nagar, Kurukshetra, under Sections 3 (I) (X) and 3(I) (XI) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and three years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 406 of the IPC and two years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 506 of the IPC.

Forest official held for graft
Fatehabad, March 30
A team of the State Vigilance Bureau (SVB) today arrested a block officer of the Forest Department, Ran Singh, after laying a trap on the complaint of
a farmer. The bribe money was meant to be delivered to another block officer Raman Kumar and vigilance officials have booked him also under
the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Local leaders help resolve property dispute
Gurgaon, March 30
In a noble initiative, some local politicians played a positive and proactive role in getting a communal dispute resolved amicably.
The dispute had erupted between members of two communities over some Wakf Board property at Sohna town in the district a few days ago.

Scheme for industrial workers’ children
Chandigarh, March 30
The Haryana Government has started a scheme under which financial assistance of Rs 2,000 to Rs 9,000 will be given for various short-term courses to provide computer education to children of industrial workers.

Restructure discoms, say engineers
Panipat, March 30
The state power engineers have reiterated their demand to restructure discoms, which has not been done for the past one decade.
President of the Haryana Power Engineers Association RS Dahiya said reluctance in restructuring of discoms defied logic.

HC dismisses jail official’s plea
Chandigarh, March 30
Sonepat Deputy Superintendent of Jail’s plea against imposition of punishment following the death of an inmate in a clash between two groups has failed to find favour with the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Fatehabad village gets cash award
Fatehabad, March 30
The gram panchayat of Dulat village in this district has been awarded a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh for showing the best results in correcting the skewed gender ratio (34 girls against 16 boys) in 2009.

Pedalling for a cause
INSO activists to reach out to people on cyclesSirsa, March 30
A 50-member team of the Indian National Students Organisation, the student wing of the INLD, today set out for Delhi under its “Chhatra Satyagrah Andolan.” Padam Jain, district present of the INLD, flagged off the team.INLD leaders Padam Jain and Krishna Fogat flag off a cycle “jatha” of the
INSO in Sirsa on Tuesday. Photo: Amit Soni

Villager commits suicide
Sonepat, March 30
Disturbed over the alleged illicit relations of his wife with a youth, Prem of Khewra village committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance here today.
The police recovered a suicide note from his possession and on the complaint of Prem’s brother, Randhir, a case has been registered against his wife Rajo, her paramour Keshu and her mother.

2 labourers killed as earth caves in
Fatehabad, March 30
Two labourers were buried alive when they were digging soil at a depth of 15 feet and the earth on one side caved in at Alika village near Ratia today.
The labourers were working at the construction site of waterworks of the Public Health Department.

Chandigarh, March 30
The Chandigarh Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has quashed the promotion of Haryana Officer-on-Special Duty (Forest Rules Cell) KL Manhas, IFS. The officer is in the rank of Principle Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), the highest rank in the state Forest Department.

Manhas’s promotion was challenged by NR Taneja, who was Additional Principle Chief Conservator of Forests (APCCF) before he retired last year.

Taneja had moved the CAT against Manhas on the ground that the government had promoted Manhas even though he was indicted in an inquiry.

The departmental promotion committee (DPC), which met on March 20, 2009, for considering the claims of IFS officers for promotion to the post of APCCF, recommended the names of Manhas and Parvez Ahmed. While Ahmed was promoted, the recommendation regarding Manhas was kept in a sealed cover, which was to be opened on the conclusion of the disciplinary proceedings against him. After Manhas was issued a “simple warning”, the sealed cover was opened and Manhas was promoted as APCCF with effect from April 1, 2009. Manhas was promoted as PCCF on January 4, 2010.

Challenging the promotions to Manhas, Taneja contended that the opening of the sealed cover in 2009 was violative of the instructions issued by the Union Government in pursuance of the law laid down by the apex courting the Jankiraman case.

He also pleaded that there was no provision for “simple warning” in the rules.

Agreeing with the plea of Taneja, the Bench comprising Justice SD Anand and member Khushi Ram held that he (Taneja) should be considered for promotion as APCCF from April 1, 2009. It said Taneja was further entitled to be considered for promotion as PCCF with effect from January 4, 2010.

The Bench said Taneja “has to be considered for substitution in place of Manhas in
toto”.

Sirsa, March 30
The Haryana Government will soon introduce a new policy for the assessment of house tax in municipal areas of the state.
Under the new policy, the government plans to introduce self-assessment of the house tax on the lines of the income tax.

Haryana Local Urban Bodies Minister Gopal Kanda said here today that a meeting with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had been planned for tomorrow on the issue.

“The time has come when the Hooda government fulfil it promise made to the people for making the house tax assessment simpler and affordable for common people,” Kanda said.

The minister revealed that under the new policy there would be no house tax on houses constructed on less than 100 yards, the tax would be nominal on houses made on land up to 250 yards and it would be affordable on plots over 250 yards.

Kanda said the issue of approval of unauthorised colonies would also be taken up in tomorrow’s meeting. “We have received cases of 1,300 colonies of Haryana for which approval has been sought. The government has already conducted a satellite survey of these colonies to confirm whether these comply with the minimum requirement,” Kanda said.

The minister said the norms required that at least 50 per cent of the plots in a colony should have constructions over them to make the colony eligible for approval.

“Giving approval to these unauthorised colonies will be in the interest of the state government as well as the people living in these colonies,” he said.

While the government has already provided water supply, sewer lines and roads to these colonies, it is not getting any taxes from there.

On the other hand, the residents of these colonies faced problems in getting their site plans approved from municipalities and failed to get loans on hypothecation of their houses.

Two minors breached
Wheat crop on 25 acres in Jind village damaged
Assessment of loss in hailstorm ordered
Bijendra Ahlawat
Tribune News Service

Jind, March 30
Several houses in the Balmiki Colony of Nirjan village were flooded and wheat crop on about 25 acres near Alipura village damaged following breaches in two water minors in the past 24 hours.

The water supply to these minors have been temporarily suspended.

Residents of Balmiki Colony were asleep or were preparing to go to bed when water gushed into their houses, claimed a local resident. The breach was plugged by locals after about an hour.

The department concerned had been told about the weakening embankments, but to no avail, claimed a resident.

The second breach in the Barsola minor inundated 25 acres of agricultural land, belonging to 15 farmers of Alipura, severely damaging the wheat crop.

Meanwhile, employees of the Public Health Department are up in arms against the government’s decision to hand over the operations of tube wells to village panchayats in the district.

employees staged a demonstration outside the office of the officials concerned.

Chandigarh: Haryana Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Satpal Sangwan has directed officers of his department to assess the loss to crops due to a hailstorm in Naraingarh area last night.

Wheat, onion, fodder and vegetables were damaged in the hailstorm.

The officers have been directed to submit their report at the earliest so that the affected farmers are compensated in time.

Fatehabad, March 30
The “Parmanoo Sanyantra Virodhi Morcha”, Haryana, and the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, Gorakhpur, today contested the safety claims of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and alleged that the officers of the corporation were misleading people on the issue.

A joint meeting of the morcha and the kisan samiti agitating against the Gorakhpur atomic power project was held here today. Members of the samiti castigated the NPCIL on its recent claims on the safety of nuclear plants in India.

Sanjay Gumasta, project manager of the proposed plant at Gorakhpur, had on Monday claimed that the project being pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) was completely safe and that there was no parallel between this plant and the one in Fukushima in Japan.

Yashvir Arya of the Azadi Bachao Andolan, Asit Dass of the Delhi Platform, Rajinder Sharma, Subhash Punia and Sandeep Punia of the Berozgar Yuva Sangathan alleged that the facts given by the NPCIL were misleading.

The activists agitating under the banner of the morcha alleged that Gopalakrishnan, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, has already expressed concerns over safety norms in India in his article “Nuclear Regulations in Shambles”.

The morcha activists maintained that besides the exclusive zone of 1.6 km radius, where no population is allowed, regulations provided the norms of population within the radius of 5 km and 10 km, respectively, which made Gorakhpur unfit for the plant.

They alleged that the plant would deprive farmers of their share of irrigation water as nearly 300 cusecs of water would be needed for the reactors of 2,800 MW capacity.

Hans Raj Siwach, president of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, alleged that the claim of the authorities that a majority of farmers were ready to give their land was also misleading.

Siwach claimed that none of the farmers had so far withdrawn his objections filed against the notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act issued by the government.

He said as many as 28 panchayats had given their resolutions against the proposed plant, out of which 19 had been sent to the government through the Deputy Commissioner, Fatehabad.

Kurukshetra, March 30
The court of Dr Neelima Shangla, Additional Sessions Judge, Kurukshetra, in a judgment announced here yesterday, awarded five years of rigorous imprisonment to Narender Sharma, son of Vishnu Dutt of Shanti Nagar, Kurukshetra, under Sections 3 (I) (X) and 3(I) (XI) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and three years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 406 of the IPC and two years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 506 of the IPC.

The complainant, Mohindero Devi, had a residential house in Kalyan Nagar, Kurukshetra, which was sold by her husband and other shareholders for a sum of Rs 12,00,000 out of which Rs 4,00,000 had come to their share. Narender, a property dealer, assured them to provide a plot measuring 70 sq yards for residential purpose in Shanti Nagar, Kurukshetra.

After 20 days, he told them that the owner of the said plot had refused to sell his said plot and he had received double the earnest money of Rs 1 lakh from the original owner of the said plot. However, the said amount was not paid to them.

Thereafter, he assured the complainant and her husband that he would provide another residential house to them in Shanti Nagar, Kurukshetra. Narender Kumar again took Rs 2,40,000 on different dates from Mohindero Devi for getting the sale deed of the house registered.

After the receipt of the said amount, neither he got the sale deed registered, nor he returned the said amount to them. However, the accused remained in touch with her and visited her house frequently. Two days after the last payment, Narender came to her house. Finding her all alone, he raped her and threatened to kill her if she disclosed the incident to anybody.

Later, the woman narrated the incident to her brother Raveen Kumar. When the complainant approached Narender, he abused her and told her that he had some obscene photographs of her in his mobile phone and would defame her in society.

After hearing the arguments, Shangla awarded the imprisonment to the accused along with a fine of Rs 1,06,000. In default of payment of fine, he will further have to undergo a three-year RI. All sentences are directed to run concurrently.

Fatehabad, March 30
A team of the State Vigilance Bureau (SVB) today arrested a block officer of the Forest Department, Ran Singh, after laying a trap on the complaint of
a farmer. The bribe money was meant to be delivered to another block officer Raman Kumar and vigilance officials have booked him also under
the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The bureau sleuths have also arrested tea vendor Updesh Kumar to whom the money was delivered by Ran Singh for its delivery to Raman Kumar.

Rajesh, a farmer from Bothan Kalan village, had alleged in his complaint to the SVB that trees of the Forest Department touching his fields had been cut by some miscreants.

He alleged that on March 25, Block Forest Officer Raman Kumar demanded Rs 10,000 from him, threatening to implicate him in a criminal case.

He said on his request Raman Kumar had agreed to accept Rs 5,000 now and the rest after the harvesting of wheat crop.

The SVB sleuths laid a trap and accompanied Rajesh with a witness, duty magistrate to the office of the Forest Department here.

When Rajesh called Raman Kumar on his phone to take the money, he told the farmer to give it to his colleague
Ran Singh as he was out of town.

Rajesh Kumar delivered the bribe money to Ran Singh, who in turn gave it to Updesh Kumar for delivering it to Raman. The vigilance sleuths swooped on the two and arrested them red-handed.

The SVB has booked all three under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Meanwhile, Ran Singh’s nephew, advocate Hari Singh Garhwal, alleged that his uncle had been wrongly implicated in the case. He claimed that his uncle had no idea that the currency he was receiving for Raman Kumar was bribe money.

Gurgaon, March 30
In a noble initiative, some local politicians played a positive and proactive role in getting a communal dispute resolved amicably.
The dispute had erupted between members of two communities over some Wakf Board property at Sohna town in the district a few days ago.

According to official sources, there is an old dome-shaped building on the said piece of land belonging to the Wakf Board. A local family placed some Hindu religious idols there, ostensibly to have a temple.

Asserting their claim over the place, some members of the Muslim community sought the site to offer prayers there.

Sensing communal tension, the district administration took over the site and got the idols removed. The administration also prohibited members of both the sects from offering prayers there.

To find a mutually acceptable amicable solution to the issue, a joint meeting was called and 31 members from each community were invited. Help was also sought from the local political leaders.

The meeting was held in the presence of the local politicians from all major parties at Gymkhana Club in Sector 29 here yesterday.

SDM (Gurgaon-South) Capt Manoj, who attended the meeting on behalf of the district administration, said initially, members from both the communities started accusing each other, but finally they resolved to maintain status quo at the site. Capt Manoj maintained that leaders from different parties rose above party politics to help in resolving the issue.

As of now, an 11-member committee comprising members from both the communities has been formed to monitor the developments at the disputed site and maintain the status quo.

Chandigarh, March 30
The Haryana Government has started a scheme under which financial assistance of Rs 2,000 to Rs 9,000 will be given for various short-term courses to provide computer education to children of industrial workers.

An official spokesman said here today that the main aim of the scheme was to provide technical education to the children of labourers and uplift their standard of living.

Often most children of labourers leave their education before or after Class X due to the weak financial position of their family.

Under the scheme, financial assistance of Rs 2000 to Rs 9000 would be provided to the children of labourers, who undertake short-term computer courses, ranging from one month to two years, from an institution run by HARTRON or any other institution affiliated to HARTRON or the state Technical Education Department.

He said financial assistance of Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000 would be provided to the boys and girls, respectively, for training of one to three months. Financial assistance of Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,500 would be given to boys and girls, respectively, for training of three to six months.

Similarly, boys and girls would get Rs 4,000 and Rs 6,000, respectively, for training of above six months and up to one year. For courses of duration from one year to one and a half years, the boys and girls would get Rs 5,000 and Rs 7,500, respectively, and for courses from one and a half years to two years, boys and girls would get Rs 6,000 and Rs 9,000, respectively.

Panipat, March 30
The state power engineers have reiterated their demand to restructure discoms, which has not been done for the past one decade.
President of the Haryana Power Engineers Association RS Dahiya said reluctance in restructuring of discoms defied logic.

He stated that this had resulted in unsatisfactory service to the consumers and overloading of subdivisions.
He added that there had been some restructuring in the generation and transmission wings, but the discoms had been left untouched, which were the main revenue-earning utilities.

He said the workload was increasing and creation of new posts was a must for better services to consumers.

The president said the discoms were supposed to restructure themselves by March 31, 2006. However, even after four years, the process had not been completed. This had led to the reduction of the working staff up to 48 per cent in the discoms.

Chandigarh, March 30
Sonepat Deputy Superintendent of Jail’s plea against imposition of punishment following the death of an inmate in a clash between two groups has failed to find favour with the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Rajinder Singh Siwatch was accused of “not taking immediate steps to control the situation, inasmuch as he failed to ring the alarm in the jail so that the situation would have been brought under control immediately”.

It was also alleged that “there was a delay in shifting the seriously injured persons to hospital, which caused the death of convict Jaswant and the State of Haryana had to pay a compensation of Rs 2,00,000 to his family to comply
with the orders of the National Human Rights Commission”.

The state had, subsequently, punished the official by stopping his annual grade increment “without cumulative effect”. The order was upheld by a Single Judge, following which Siwatch moved the Division Bench.

Taking up the matter, the Division Bench of Justice MM Kumar and Justice TPS Mann said:

“The undisputed facts of the instant appeal are that for the failure of the petitioner-appellant to control the situation in the district jail, Sonepat, on June 30, 1999, a charge sheet was issued to him.”.

“After conducting the inquiry, Sonepat ADC-cum-inquiry officer absolved the petitioner of all the charges. Disagreeing with the report, state Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, on the other hand, issued a show-cause notice to him. Eventually, the punishment was imposed on Siwatch.”

Dismissing his plea, the Bench observed: “We see no legal infirmity in the view taken by the Single Judge….

“A perusal of the dissenting note would show the disciplinary authority recorded specific reasons for disagreement with the findings recorded by the inquiry officer on each count.

“There is an iota of reasoning which has been made part of discussion in order to reach a conclusion that there are sufficient grounds to sustain the charge in support of disagreement….This appeal fails and is accordingly dismissed”.

Fatehabad, March 30
The gram panchayat of Dulat village in this district has been awarded a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh for showing the best results in correcting the skewed gender ratio (34 girls against 16 boys) in 2009.

Sirsa, March 30
A 50-member team of the Indian National Students Organisation, the student wing of the INLD, today set out for Delhi under its “Chhatra Satyagrah Andolan.” Padam Jain, district present of the INLD, flagged off the team.

Jain said the INSO had taken up the programme to highlight the “anti-people policies of the state government.”Krishna Fogat, district president of the women’s wing of the INLD, was present on the occasion.

Yogesh Sharma, district president of the INSO, said the team of cyclists would pass through various towns and villages on its way to Delhi and mobilise the people against the government policies.

The INSO would highlight the issues of unemployment, commercialisation of education and scarcity of teachers in government schools. It would submit a memorandum to the President on these issues on April 4.

Chandigarh, March 30
Cooperative Sugar Mills in the state have so far produced 18.20 lakh quintals of sugar by crushing 221.79 lakh quintals of sugarcane during the current crushing season.

While stating this here today, a spokesman of the Haryana State Federation of Cooperative Sugar Mills said that only 7.06 lakh quintals of sugar was produced by crushing of 85.16 lakh quintals of sugarcane during the corresponding period last year.

Sonepat, March 30
Disturbed over the alleged illicit relations of his wife with a youth, Prem of Khewra village committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance here today.
The police recovered a suicide note from his possession and on the complaint of Prem’s brother, Randhir, a case has been registered against his wife Rajo, her paramour Keshu and her mother.

In the suicide note, the victim had written that his wife had illicit relations with Keshu of her parental village and despite his repeated pleas, she continued her relationship with Keshu. He also brought the matter to the notice of his in-laws, but to no avail.

After he consumed poison, he was taken to the local Civil Hospital, where doctors declared him as brought dead. The police also reached the hospital and recovered the suicide note.

Fatehabad, March 30
Two labourers were buried alive when they were digging soil at a depth of 15 feet and the earth on one side caved in at Alika village near Ratia today.
The labourers were working at the construction site of waterworks of the Public Health Department.

The victims have been identified as Naresh Kumar (22) and Gurmeet (25) of Alika village. Relatives of the deceased alleged that manual labour at such a depth was wrong on the part of the department and after digging the earth at 10 feet, the department should have engaged a JCB machine for the work.
— PTI